Overpopulation
Overpopulation
is the state whereby the human population rises to an extent exceeding the
carrying capacity of the ecological setting. In an overpopulated environment,
the numbers of people might be more than the available essential materials for
survival such as transport, water, shelter, food or social amenities. This
regularly contributes to environmental deterioration, worsening in the quality
of life, or even the disintegration of the population.
Due
to immigration, the decline in mortality rates, medical breakthroughs, and
increased birth rates, populations will always increase and eventually gives
rise to overpopulation.
Overpopulation
thus contributes to some of the most compelling environmental problems which
encompass:
As
human population keeps on increasing, exhaustible natural resources such as
arable land, coral reefs, fresh water, fossil fuels, and forests continue to
drop sharply. This creates competitive demands on the vital life-sustaining
resources and contributes to an incredible decline in the quality of life.
The
increased loss of the ecosystems including wetlands, wildlife, rainforests,
coral reefs, aquatic life forms, and grasslands are highly influenced by
overpopulation. For example, rainforests originally covered 14% of the entire
earth’s surface. Today, rainforest only cover about 6% of the earth’s surface
and scientists’ project it may even become less in the next four decades judged
by the current rate of vegetation removal, logging, and deforestation. Besides,
due to environmental pollution, 30% of the ocean reefs have been lost because
of acidification and global warming since 1980. Also, more than half of the
original wetlands have been lost.
The
more the number of people, the more the number of vehicles and industries would
be. Furthermore, more population tends to increased use of energy sources such
as coal and firewood which contributes to increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Hence,
because of the accumulation of human generated green house gases and carbon
footprint in the atmosphere, the planet has continued to witness amplified
global warming and climate change. The effects of climate change and global
warming are resulting in extreme hunger, drought, flooding, and loss of
habitat.
Overpopulation
has caused encroachment into frontier forests and destruction of natural
ecosystems that has led to the mass extinction of species. The number of
threatened species persists to multiply in number whereas some have completely
gone extinct. This is because of human activities such as acidifying water,
over exploitation of natural resources, pollution, over fishing, poaching, and
destruction of natural systems which are necessary for the survival of
different species.
The
unrelenting nature of overpopulation on the earth has destroyed most of the
world’s fresh systems. Most of the lakes, streams, rivers and ground water
making up fresh water have been polluted. According to the global outlook of
water resources, these activities influenced by over population have only left
less than 1% of the planet’s fresh water readily accessible for human
utilization.
Water
vulnerability is already affecting many overpopulated nations, especially in
some developing countries, as the demands for water tend to be more than the
accessible water. Millions of fish species from freshwater ecosystems are on
the verge of extinction. Thus, as human inhabitants rise in number, so will the
problem of quality freshwater accessibility.
Overpopulation
lowers the standards of living since it creates stress on the vital resources
for survival and increases the difficulty of accessing the consistent supply of
quality food, water, energy, health, security and shelter. Consequently, it
makes the poor to become poorer, and they often opt for poor living conditions
to survive.
Eventually,
it gives rise to lower life expectancy. The situation is serious in developing
nations such as southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa where most of the poor
populations submit to inadequate and poor diets.
In
overpopulated nations, the available jobs are fewer than the overall job
seeking population. This contributes to high levels of unemployment. In turn,
lack of unemployment leads to elevated crime rates because of theft, drug
cartels, and militia groups which are exploited as options for attaining basic
resources and necessities such as food, good living standards, and wealth.
Violence and conflicts arise when people start competing for the available
limited resources.
As
population has grown over the years, farming practices have evolved to produce
enough food to feed larger numbers of people. However, intensive farming
methods also cause damage to local ecosystems and the land, which may pose
problems in the future.
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